Video Games

I love playing console RPGs (Role Playing Games).
I don't like playing online, but rather like the ability to hit pause at any time,
do whatever I want, and then resume the game when I am ready.
My favorite series is Final Fantasy,
although there are some other nice RPGs out there.
I have written some FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
about some of these games.
You can find text versions of these FAQs on
GameFAQs.
Here is a list of those files:

This FAQ explains how the paradigm system works,
giving examples of how you can configure paradigms to suit your fighting style.
I had such good reactions to my Gambit Guide for FF XII
and had heard so many people complaining about the paradigm system,
that I decided to write this guide.

This is a spreadsheet tool that can help you calculate how many EXP are needed
to max out an item in Final Fantasy XIII.

The spreadsheet is in Open Document format, so Excel might not handle it correctly.
(Excell had problems handling this, and I only use free open source office tools.)
I sugges that you
download a free copy of Open Office,
which will read this spreadsheet just fine
(and most Excel files as well).

Personally, I use
Libre Office,
but for some reason they don't support the Sigma function (sig).
You can work around this by writing your own sig macro.
Nickolas Hook suggested creating your own sig macro:

This game introduced a new AI combat control.
Rather than the traditional turn-based combat style,
you can essentially program each character in your party
to behave according to a wide variety of conditions and actions.
What makes this even more interesting
is that the gambit system uses a functional programming style,
rather than the procedural programming methodology which most programmers are familiar with.

I created a tool that generates a cross-reference FAQ that lists
the enemies, where they are located, and what items can be obtained from the enemy.
This FAQ cross-references enemy, item, and location,
so you can see what enemies are in what location,
what items can be obtained from a given enemy,
and where a given item can be found and from what enemy.

This is a really great RPG by Square-Enix,
the makers of Final Fantasy,
that allows the player to recruit a large number of characters.
Furthermore,
it takes at least two times through the game to recruit all characters.
Each character has a different method of being recruited,
and sometimes can only be recruited at specific times.

This FAQ explains when and how you can recruit all the characters,
and why you might want to recruit each character.

This was the first "real" Final Fantasy game I ever played.
It was on my Super Nintendo System (SNES).
It was recently released again for the Nintendo DS,
and added some new features
that requires you to play the game several times
before you truly complete the game.